President of Zambia

The president of the Republic of Zambia is the head of state and head of government of Zambia and is the highest executive authority in the country. The president is elected by popular vote for a five-year term and is responsible for the administration of the government, overseeing the implementation of national policies, and representing Zambia in international affairs. The office was established at Zambia's independence in 1964. The current president is Hakainde Hichilema, who assumed office on August 24, 2021, following the 2021 presidential election where his party, the United Party for National Development, won a majority. The president's role includes appointing the Cabinet, serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Zambian Defence Force, and ensuring the enforcement of laws.

The office was first held by Kenneth Kaunda following independence in 1964. Since 1991, when Kaunda left the presidency, the office has been held by six others: Frederick Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata, Edgar Lungu and the current president Hakainde Hichilema. In addition, acting president Guy Scott served in an interim capacity after the death of President Michael Sata.

Since 31 August 1991 the president is also the head of government, as the position of Prime Minister was abolished in the last months of Kaunda's presidential term following negotiations with opposition parties.

Presidential term

The president is elected for a term of five years. Since 1991, There is a two-term limit for the president in the Constitution of Zambia. There was an attempt to modify the term limits in 2001 for Chiluba, but it did not materialize.<ref name="termlimits">Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Northern Rhodesia

When the British colony of Northern Rhodesia was separated from Southern Rhodesia and British South Africa Company rule, the head of state was the British Monarch represented in the colony by the Governor of Northern Rhodesia who exercised executive power as head of state and government. In the 1964 Northern Rhodesian general election, the office of Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia was created to become the head of government ahead of independence. On 19 May 1964, the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations Duncan Sandys announced that Northern Rhodesia would become independent under a president. The election for the first president would be held by secret ballot amongst the elected members of the Legislative Council.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Zambia

Upon independence and the renaming of the country as Zambia, Prime Minister Kenneth Kaunda was elected as the first president. The office of prime minister was also abolished, making the presidency an executive post.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Initially, the country would be governed as a multi-party democracy. However, following the African National Congress integrating with United National Independence Party (UNIP), President Kaunda announced that the Constitution of Zambia would be changed to turn the country into a one-party state in 1973 with UNIP as the only legal party with all others banned.<ref name=ndi>Template:Cite web</ref> Kaunda claimed this was done to discourage tribalism.<ref name=np /> However, the constitution also restored the office of prime minister as head of government.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 1973 Zambian general election, voters were only able to vote for the UNIP sponsored Kaunda and their only options were to vote if they approved or rejected his candidacy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Kaunda was re-elected unanimously at each election until 1991. During the 1980s, pressures increased for the multi-party ban to be rescinded. After negotiations with the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) in 1990, President Kaunda signed a constitutional amendment legalising political parties other than UNIP. The office of prime minister was abolished again and the powers returned to the president.<ref name=con>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 1991 Zambian general election, Kaunda was defeated by the MMD's Frederick Chiluba.<ref name=np>Template:Cite web</ref> Kaunda agreed to hand over the presidency peacefully, becoming the second African leader to do so after Mathieu Kérékou of Benin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1996, President Chiluba allegedly discovered a plot by members of UNIP to carry out a coup d'état and declared a state of emergency to arrest UNIP members. However the Supreme Court of Zambia declared the emergency declaration was not valid and lifted the state of emergency and released those arrested.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Later in the year, Chiluba amended the constitution stating that only people who had one parent born in Zambia or Northern Rhodesia could run for president.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This amendment was ostensibly targeted at blocking Kaunda from standing for president again as his parents had been born in Nyasaland (modern day Malawi).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Due to a two-term limit in the constitution, Levy Mwanawasa was selected by Chiluba as the MMD's candidate to succeed him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mwanawasa won the 2001 Zambian general election but his victory was marred by accusations of electoral fraud by opposition parties.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following legal disputes, the Supreme Court eventually ruled in 2005 that though the poll was "flawed", there were not enough errors to justify overturning the result.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Mwanawasa won re-election in 2006.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He died in 2008 and was replaced by Rupiah Banda.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 2011 Zambian general election Rupiah was defeated by the Patriotic Front's (PF) Michael Sata.<ref name=gs>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sata died in office in 2014. Accordingly, his Vice-President Guy Scott became president in an acting capacity. This made Scott the first white head of state of an African country since South Africa's F. W. de Klerk who left office in 1994 following the end of apartheid.<ref name=gs /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, because his parents were not born in Zambia, due to the constitution he was only able to act as president for 90 days and could not stand for election.<ref name=gs /> At the 2015 Zambian presidential election, the PF's Edgar Lungu won the presidency and retained it a year later in the 2016 general election under the amended constitution.

There are four most notable changes affecting the presidency in this amendment assented to by Edgar Lungu in January 2016, most of which are found in Part VII(7) of the constitution [1]. Firstly, Article 100 Section 1 a) effectively removal the parental clause requiring presidential and vice presidential candidates to have at least one parent born in Zambia and the harmonisation of Presidential and Vice-presidential eligibility in Article 110 Section 2. Secondly, Article 101 Sections 1, 2 3 (a & b) and 8 signalled the shift from a first-past-the-post system to a two-round system in which over 50% of valid votes cast are required for a president to win. In the event that this does not happen a second round will be held within 37 days between the two leading candidates to which the 50% + 1 rule will determine the winner on that second round. The third notable change is in the introduction of the running mate clause in Article 110 Sections 1, 2 and 3. This saw the President and Vice President directly elected on the same ticket as opposed to before where the President who once elected appoints and dismisses the vice president executively. Lastly, the fourth change was in Article 100 Section 1 j) which requires an aspiring presidential candidates to prove to have at least 100 registered voters in each of the ten provinces to successfully file for nominations with the Electoral Commission of Zambia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2020, Lungu attempted to change the constitution to allow the President to change electoral laws and take control of Zambia's monetary policy. However the controversial Bill 10 failed after the Parliament of Zambia did not vote in favour with the required 2/3 majority.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 2021 Zambian general election, the United Party for National Development's Hakainde Hichilema defeated Lungu.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

List of officeholders

Political parties

Status

Symbols

Template:Note label Elected unopposed

Template:Note label Died in office

Template:Abbr	Portrait	Name Template:Small	Elected	Term of office			Political party
				Took office	Left office	Time in office
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |1	File:Kenneth David Kaunda.jpg	Kenneth Kaunda Template:Small	1968 Template:Text Template:Text Template:Text Template:Text	24 October 1964	2 November 1991	Template:Age in years and days	UNIP
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |2	File:Frederick Chiluba on February 3, 1994 (cropped).jpg	Frederick Chiluba Template:Small	1991 1996	2 November 1991	2 January 2002	Template:Age in years and days	MMD
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |3	File:Levy Mwanawasa.jpg	Levy Mwanawasa Template:Small	2001 2006	2 January 2002	19 August 2008Template:Ref label	Template:Age in years and days	MMD
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |—	File:Rupiah Banda 2010-11-18.jpg	Rupiah Banda Template:Small	—	19 August 2008	2 November 2008	Template:Age in years and days	MMD
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |4			2008	2 November 2008	23 September 2011	Template:Age in years and days
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |5	File:Michael Chilufya Sata on April 2, 2014 (cropped).jpg	Michael Sata Template:Small	2011	23 September 2011	28 October 2014Template:Ref label	Template:Age in years and days	PF
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |—	File:Guy Scott.png	Guy Scott Template:Small	—	28 October 2014	25 January 2015	Template:Age in years and days	PF
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |6	File:Edgar Lungu, 26 july 2018 (cropped).jpg	Edgar Lungu Template:Small	2015 2016	25 January 2015	24 August 2021	Template:Age in years and days	PF
style="background:Template:Party color; color:white;" |7	File:Hakainde Hichilema in Japan on February 6, 2025 (cropped).jpg	Hakainde Hichilema Template:Small	2021	24 August 2021	Incumbent	Template:Age in years and days	UPND

Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:16 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:150 left:20 AlignBars = late

Define $today = {{#time:d/m/Y}}

Colors =

 id:unip value:rgb(0.07,0.55,0)    legend:United_National_Independence_Party
 id:mmd  value:rgb(0,0.39,1)       legend:Movement_for_Multi-Party_Democracy
 id:pf   value:rgb(0.19,0.39,0.69) legend:Patriotic_Front
 id:upnd value:rgb(0.82,0.20,0.22) legend:United_Party_for_National_Development

 id:gray1  value:gray(0.85)
 id:gray2  value:gray(0.95)

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1964 till:31/12/{{#expr:{{#time:Y}}+1}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1965 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1964

Legend = columns:1 left:150 top:35 columnwidth:170

TextData =

 pos:(20,38) textcolor:black fontsize:M
 text:"Political party:"

BarData =

bar:Kaunda
bar:Chiluba
bar:Mwanawasa
bar:Banda
bar:Sata
bar:Scott
bar:Lungu
bar:Hichilema

PlotData =

 width:5 align:left fontsize:9 shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar:Kaunda
 from: 24/10/1964 till: 02/11/1991 color:unip text:"Kenneth Kaunda"
bar:Chiluba
 from: 02/11/1991 till: 02/01/2002 color:mmd  text:"Frederick Chiluba"
bar:Mwanawasa
 from: 02/01/2002 till: 19/08/2008 color:mmd  text:"Levy Mwanawasa"
bar:Banda
 from: 19/08/2008 till: 23/09/2011 color:mmd  text:"Rupiah Banda"
bar:Sata
 from: 23/09/2011 till: 28/10/2014 color:pf   text:"Michael Sata"
bar:Scott
 from: 28/10/2014 till: 25/01/2015 color:pf   text:"Guy Scott (acting)"
bar:Lungu
 from: 25/01/2015 till: 24/08/2021 color:pf   text:"Edgar Lungu"
bar:Hichilema
 from: 24/08/2021 till: $today     color:upnd text:"Hakainde Hichilema"

</timeline>

Rank by time in office

Rank	President	Time in office
1	Kenneth Kaunda	Template:Ayd
2	Frederick Chiluba	Template:Ayd
3	Levy Mwanawasa	Template:Ayd
4	Edgar Lungu	Template:Ayd
5	Hakainde Hichilema	Template:Ayd
6	Michael Sata	Template:Ayd
7	Rupiah Banda	Template:Ayd
—	Guy Scott	Template:Ayd (acting)
—	Rupiah Banda	Template:Ayd (acting)

See also

• First Lady of Zambia
• Vice-President of Zambia
• Governor of Northern Rhodesia
• Prime Minister of Zambia
• Lists of office-holders
• List of current heads of state and government

External links

• World Statesmen – Zambia